Penélope Cruz, in full Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April 28, 1974, Madrid, Spain), Spanish actress known for her beauty and her portrayal of sultry characters. She achieved early success in Spanish cinema and quickly established herself as an international star.

Cruz grew up outside Madrid, where she studied ballet for nine years at Spain’s National Conservatory; she also received intensive training in classical and jazz dance and studied theatre in New York City. At age 15 she won a modeling agency competition and began appearing in music videos and on Spanish television. Her first film roles were in El laberinto griego (“The Greek Labyrinth”; although the film was completed in 1991, its release was delayed until 1993) and Jamón, jamón (1992; “Ham, Ham”). She came to international attention with Belle Epoque (1992; “The Age of Beauty”), a film about an army deserter taken in by an elderly man and his four enchanting daughters. It won an Academy Award for best foreign film. On numerous occasions Cruz worked with the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, initially appearing in his Carne trémula (1997; Live Flesh) and Todo sobre mi madre (1999; All About My Mother).

Cruz’s first English-language role came in Talk of Angels (1998), which was completed in 1994 but not released for several years. She then appeared in the contemporary western The Hi-Lo Country (1998). Cruz quickly established herself as a prominent actress in Hollywood. She appeared in the romantic comedy Woman on Top (2000) and starred alongside Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses (2000), a film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name. She starred opposite Johnny Depp in Blow (2001), a film based on the life of George Jung, the most prolific cocaine dealer in the United States during the 1970s. In 2001 Cruz also appeared in Vanilla Sky—a remake of a successful film in which she had earlier starred, Abre los ojos (1997; Open Your Eyes)—and afterward was involved in a highly publicized relationship with costar Tom Cruise.

In the early 21st century Cruz continued to act in both English- and Spanish-language productions. She starred in Head in the Clouds (2004) and later appeared as an unhappily married mother in Almodóvar’s critically acclaimed Volver (2006; To Return), for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Cruz played a woman dreamed of by a man undergoing a midlife crisis in The Good Night (2007) and appeared as the young lover of an aging college professor in Elegy (2008), a film adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Dying Animal (2001). She then won her first Oscar—for best supporting actress, for her work in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), in which she starred alongside Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem; Cruz and Bardem married in 2010.

(From left to right) Penélope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Marion Cotillard in …

In 2009 Cruz appeared in Almodóvar’s Los abrazos rotos (2009; Broken Embraces), provided the voice of a guinea pig in the animated G-Force (2009), and starred in Nine, a musical set in the 1960s that focused on the life of a film director (played by Daniel Day-Lewis). She reteamed with Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), in which she portrayed the strong-willed daughter of the pirate Blackbeard. Cruz then collaborated again with Allen, portraying an Italian prostitute in his ensemble comedy To Rome with Love (2012). In the crime drama The Counselor (2013), she was cast as the girlfriend of a lawyer who becomes involved in a drug deal that goes wrong. The Spanish-language melodrama Ma ma (2015), which Cruz coproduced, featured her as a mother diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her comedic skills were on display in Ben Stiller’s fashion-industry satire Zoolander 2 (2016).

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...a magnificent travelogue, and a deft comedy of manners. Javier Bardem played a supremely confident Barcelona-based artist and ladies’ man who seduces a pair of tourists (Johansson and Rebecca Hall); Penelope Cruz’s splendid performance as his combustible ex-wife earned her an Academy Award as best supporting actress. The film became one of Allen’s biggest hits ever, grossing nearly $100 million...

...in the year, Bardem was again on the hunt as he portrayed a lusty painter pursuing women in Woody Allen’s comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). In 2010 Bardem married Penélope Cruz, one of his costars in the film. Later that year he appeared opposite Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love, based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir of...

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(born 1974). Spanish actress Penelope Cruz was known for her portrayal of sultry characters. She achieved early success in Spanish cinema and quickly established herself as an international star. In 2008 Cruz won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role in the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008).

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